Class 5 - Books

DISCUSSION:   Students discussed which books they consider influential on the whiteboard. Books included: The Bible, the Koran, the dictionary, 1984, To Kill a Mockingbird, Shakespeare plays, The Diary of Anne Frank,  The Jungle, Teo Te Ching, The Art of War and the Torah.

We compared our list of influential books with "100 Most Influential Books Ever Written" by Martin Seymour-Smith and a "100 Most Influential Books of the Century" from the Boston Public Library. We looked at lists of banned books.

POWERPOINT:  We looked at images and video illustrating the history of books, paper and printing. The Bible (in Latin) was the first book printed on the Gutenberg Press in the mid-1400s. Until that time, Bibles had been hand-copied by Christian monks. We watched “Introducing the Book” about a monk struggling to keep up with the "new" technology. We discussed copyright and considered cases involving J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) and Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code).

SHOW & TELL: 
Books mentioned in the text and historical books:

• Mc Guffey's Eclectic Reader (1904)
• Arithmetic book (1940)
• Spelling book (1909)
• Koran
• Book about typography

Books that have been banned or challenged:

• Satanic Verses ( a death sentence was placed on the author by an Iranian leader)
  
• Captain Underpants 
  
• Where’s Waldo (a beach scene had a partially bare woman's breast; the book was reissued with a bikini top drawn on her.

One of the books often mentioned as influential, which has also been challenged is in the news. A version of "Huckleberry Finn," has been release in which the n-word has been changed to “slave.” Many people disagree with the release of this version because it is tampering with the original meaning. (See "Sanitized Editon of 'Huckleberry Finn' Causes Uproar.)


QUIZ: Chapter 3: Books

HOMEWORK: Read Chapter 4, complete workbook activities for Chapter 4.